Our Principles

WWF's principles are intended to strengthen the social dimensions of our projects and our conservation results.

The following principles are fundamental to creating effective, lasting and equitable solutions to today’s environmental challenges, and ensure their sustainability into the future.

Respect people’s rights in accordance with customary, national and international human rights laws;

Promote equity within the scope of our projects, programmes and policies at multiple levels, and promote these principles in policy fora/advocacy work at national and global levels;

Aim to enhance the natural assets of local communities, particularly the poor, and ensure that our conservation work benefits and does not harm vulnerable people;

Address weak governance, taking into account cultural and political contexts, through improvements in tenure and income security and decision-making procedures, devolution of environmental management and empowerment to ensure that the rights (and access) of local people to natural resources, that are the basis of their livelihoods, are exercised and enforced;

Address the inequities in the distribution of environmental costs and benefits and unsustainable production and consumption patterns at multiple levels whenever possible by influencing local policies and practice, global markets, the private sector, national, regional and global policies and processes.

The non-negotiable and aspirational social principles that WWF adheres to in its work outline our commitment to integrating a social perspective in our conservation work, and ensuring that the social dimensions are implemented and monitored across the WWF organizational network.